[Scotty]

What were the SAC 3s in the random cargo depot for in the first mission flying a Vishnan fighter?

Reposted from the Discussion thread.  What were they for, why were they there, and what's the significance of any of the above?

[General Battuta]

Mission is 'The Great Preservers' if you want to investigate.

[Dilmah G]

Hmm, never noticed this.

[Thaeris]

I always blew those containers up after all the Shivans were dispatched...

[Scotty]

If you scan them, the cargos have very interesting names.

Spoiler:

"You look for the one from many"
"We dance in the garden of life"
"You look to the walls and works"
"We look for the one above all"
"He waits in the cooling ruin"
"For a daughter made out of war"
"Why are you so cold?"
"Brothers!  Brothers!  Paramatma!"
"We are your only hope."

They sound vaguely lyrical.

[Droid803]

Is that from some poem?

[Dilmah G]

*Reads them*
Ah.

All will be revealed in time, my brothers.

[Darius]

Spoiler:

Our sisters are coming...

[High Max]

;-)

[Droid803]

I fail to even understand how that relates to anything but the mysticism stuff that, frankly, I find to be the weakest points of BP, and the FS verse in general. (I really don't like the crap about the cosmic destroyers and stuff already and the triumvirate thing is so contrived just LOL-worthy).

A very...bad...easter egg if it fails to arouse any form of understanding or humour.

[Dilmah G]

BP ain't for everyone man.

But if some of you are interested, your curiosity will be rewarded.

[High Max]

;-)

[General Battuta]

I fail to even understand

Quite apparent.

how that relates to anything but the mysticism stuff that, frankly, I find to be the weakest points of BP, and the FS verse in general. (I really don't like the crap about the cosmic destroyers and stuff already and the triumvirate thing is so contrived just LOL-worthy).

There is no mysticism in BP; only mysteries not yet explained.

Nice to hear a major religion written off as lol-worthy, too.

A very...bad...easter egg if it fails to arouse any form of understanding or humour.

The fact that you don't understand doesn't mean others won't.

You're just going to have to trust that the story will be developed in an interesting way. Even as it stands, though, it's hard to take much of BP: AoA as genuinely mystical; there's nothing in there which defies physical law or requires godlike power. What you've got is some Sufficiently Advanced Aliens.

How they express themselves is, in all probability, determined by the beliefs and memetic array of the individual they are speaking to. 'Vishnu' and 'Brahma' are natural complements to Sam's existing concept of 'Shivans'.

Anyway, to wrap it up: Droid803 is wrong. Those of you who are looking for a deeper meaning are right.

[Snail]

Droid, if you don't like the whole mysticism thing then WiH should appeal to you much more than AoA. Granted it does have a bit of mysticism, but the storyline is more focused on the war than a mystical journey. Don't write of WiH because you didn't like AoA; it's really a very different experience.

[General Battuta]

I'm pretty sure Droid does like AoA, just doesn't like the 'mystical' elements of it.

And for the Nth time, go read the Vasudan take on 'mysticism' to understand why there is not necessarily any mysticism in BP. 

[Droid803]

I'm not writing off the religion, but how the gods in them are apparently massive spaceships that talk to each other which is LOL-worthy.

I've read the Vasudan prose articles and yeah, I like that explanation a lot better.

[General Battuta]

No, the gods are not massive spaceships which talk to each other. There are no gods. Whatever communication you saw during Universal Truth was the conversation as shown to Bei by the Vishnans. You have no idea how it actually took place.

[Droid803]

I should have put "gods" in quotations. I know that it was the conversation as shown to Bei. Doesn't make it less...awkward, mostly because I probably don't see the FS verse in the same way Bei does, etc...

[General Battuta]

Whatever happened in Universal Truth was only one angle on whatever is going on in the BPVerse. Don't assume that the Shivans or Vishnans are easily personalized as single entities except when they want to be.

For all you know that was the Easy Reader version presented by the Vishnans for Bei's easy consumption.

[SpardaSon21]

GB, we know exactly dick about the Shivans and Vishnans, leaving us to speculate with what we do have.  If we are reaching bad conclusions, it is because we have incomplete data.